Other Weggun Strickerts

Other Weggun Strickerts to the States

Weggun church records for Feb. 7, 1858 list the marriage of Friedericke Gudenschwager, born Dec. 3, 1830 in Weggun, daughter of Johann Christian Friedrick Gudenschwager and Christine Wilhelmine geb. Strickert, to Karl Wilhelm Gottlieb Harz, born Nov. 28, 1826, son of Friedrich Harz and Dorothee Sophie Jahnke.

This would make Christine Wilhelmine Strickert about the same age of Johann Strickert, quiet likely sister and brother.

Christine Wilhelmine Strickert Gudenschwager later immigrated to Detroit. The 1880 census records list the following:
      • Minna Gudenschwager, widowed, age 70, born in Prussia, keeps house.
      • John Gudenschwager, her son, widowed, age 43, born in Prussia, laborer.
      • Carl Gudenschwager, his son, single, age 16 or 17, born in Prussia, cigar maker.
The Weggun church records mention the death of her husband Christian Friedrich in 1861. Her son, John Friedrich Wilhelm, born Feb. 3, 1836 married Karoline Arndt in 1861. The couple had four children, but three of them died soon after birth. Only son Karl August Wilhelm (born Feb. 8, 1862) survived. Shortly after her last child, Caroline died as well. John remarried in Sept. 1869 to Karoline Broecker and the two had a son Ludwig in 1870. It would seem that they must have died as well leading to the immigration of John, his son and mother. The 1880 census for Detroit lists another of Minna’s daughters:
      • Carl Harz, head, married, age 52, born in Prussia, laborer
      • Friederica Harz, wife, married, age 43, born in Prussia, keeping house
      • Wm. Harz, son, single, age 24, born in Prussia, works in shoe factory
      • Albert Harz, son, single, age 19, born in Prussia, Tailor.

According to the Weggun church records, Friederike, born Dec. 3, 1830, was the oldest daughter of Christine Wilhelmine Gudenschwager. In 1858, she married Karl Wilhelm Gottlieb Harz who was born Dec. 28, 1826. She had two children before marriage, a daughter Wilhelmine, born 1851, and a son Karl Wilhelm Friedrich (= William), born 1854. He had a daughter from a previous marriage, Mariea Hanne Luise, born 1854. The couple had two children of their own, a daughter Bertha, born 1858, and a son August Albert Friedrich, born 1860. Presumably, when the three daughters married (by 1878 they would have been ages 27, 24, 20), the couple immigrated along with their two sons. The census records include ages that are not perfect fits, but seem close enough.

Minna also had three other daughters, Ernestine (b. 1838), Justine (b. 1842), and Albertine (b. 1845), who had likely already married. Thus again this is a case of families immigrating with sons reaching the age of adulthood.